Greece and the KKE

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Re: Greece and the KKE

Post by blindpig » Thu Jan 11, 2018 1:22 pm

Greek workers on the streets: Action and strike on January 12th against the new antipeople measures

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The All-Workers Militant Front (PAME) calls workers, youth, pensioners, the unemployed, farmers, the self-employed, all the people to massive, militant action. The government brings a new series of anti-workers measures. They must receive a dynamic response.
The SYRIZA-ANEL Government are imposing the demands of big capital, bringing a new round of measures of "fiscal adjustment" and of suppression of workers'-people’s struggles, with number one goal to ban our right to strike, and also to expand auctioning off of workers houses, so as to protect the profitability of business groups.
Tomorrow we walk the streets of struggle. We take part in the militant initiatives of the Trade Unions, Federations, Regional Trade Union Centers and other associations of the movement, till the day they bring the new measures to be voted in the parliament.
PAME also calls the trade unions to support the call of the National Workers’ Federations and Regional Trade Union Centers for National General Strike and to increase participation decisions for Friday, January 12th, the day when the new measures will be brought in the Parliament.
Program of Actions
Tuesday 9/1
In the afternoon PAME will organize rallies in Athens and other cities.
All day to be day of mass campaign to inform the workers in the factories, the industries, the offices, every workplace.
Wednesday 10/1
Continue the mass campaign to inform the workers and hold meetings and general assemblies in the work places.
In the afternoon massive protest demonstration at the Courts, which forward the auctions of people’s homes.
Thursday, 11/1
Day of preparation for the Strike. We use every way for the call of the strike to reach every worker, in every workplace.

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"Hands off Strike: It is a workers' right". Banner by PAME.

FRIDAY 12/1 IS DAY OF STRIKE
We call all workers to take part in the Strike decided by the workers’ National Federations, Regional Trade Union Centers and Trade Unions. 12:00 noon at Omonoia Square in Athens and at the Venizelos' statue in Thessaloniki.
Saturday and Sunday 13-14/1
The Unions to organize massive campaign of information of the workers in the neighborhoods and the workplace
Monday 15/1
On Monday 15/1 day that the measures will be voted in the Parliament, PAME calls workers, unemployed, retired, youth in a big rally demonstration in Athens at 6:00 pm.

https://communismgr.blogspot.gr/2018/01 ... n-and.html
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Re: Greece and the KKE

Post by blindpig » Fri Jan 12, 2018 1:24 pm

KKE: "Syriza and New Democracy compete with each other on who is the best executioner of the workers' rights"

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"The New Democracy party, apparently being perplexed as long as the SYRIZA-ANEL government has taken its job, bids in anti-worker proposals and competes with SYRIZA on who is the best executioner of the workers' rights" writes, among other things, a recent statement of the Press Office of the CC of the KKE.

Earlier, in a statement, the centre-right opposition party of New Democracy (ND) had expressed disagrements with some of the provisions of the new antiworkers' bill forwarded by the government. However, ND agrees on the new law's amendment which actually tries to abolish the right of the workers to strike.

It must be noted that according to the new governmental bill, in order for a grass-root trade-union to declare a strike, 50% of the enrolled members should agree with it. Furthermore, it is a measure that the government intends to approve under the pretext of “democracy”, when at the same time in the workplaces the terrorism of the bosses rules supreme, the danger of layoffs for participating in a demonstration is imminent, especially in conditions where unemployment looms reaching particularly high rates.

"We are witnessing a competition between SYRIZA and ND on who can better implement a policy which is against the biggest achievement of the working class, the right to strike, to struggle, to claim her rights" said Giannis Giokas, KKE MP and member of the Party's Central Committee, during a radio interview.

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PM Alexis Tsipras with opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Giokas also underlined that, in fact, the amendment prohibits the workers' right to strike at primary union level where employers' terrorism has created a condition of labour jungle.

Talking during a live TV program, the KKE politburo member Nikos Sofianos underlined that "this government does the dirty job that even New Democracy couldn't dare to do" and added: "On Monday night, SYRIZA, ND and other parties will vote together the bill which abolishes the right to strike".

Calling the people to participate in the strike of January 12th, as well as in other militant activities against the new laws, Sofianos said that "the government sows the wind and will reap the whirlwind, as far as it carries out a series of 'contracts', putting the people against the wall in collaboration with the EU and the industrialists".

https://communismgr.blogspot.gr/2018/01 ... mpete.html
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Re: Greece and the KKE

Post by blindpig » Mon Jan 15, 2018 2:04 pm

Nâzım Hikmet: "My Greek Brothers..." (1952)

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Nazim Hikmet- Letter to the Greek People. Trasmitted through the Radio Station of Warsaw. 19 August 1952.

Source: Rizospastis, 9 June 2013.
Translation in english: In Defense of Communism.

"Greek Brothers,

There are two Turkeys and two Greeces. The real one and the fake one. The independent one and the slavish one. One is the Greece of Beloyannis and of the thousand of Greek patriots who suffer in the prisons. The homeland of the Greek people. This is the genuine Greece. It is Turkey with the thousand Turkish patriots who are rotting in the dungeons. The Turkey of the Turkish people. This is the genuine Turkey.

There is the Turkey and Greece of Menderes and Plastiras. They are the official ones, not the real ones. They are those which with their few supporters sold out both countries to the american Imperialism.

Recently, under the american blessings, Menderes and Plastiras shook hands in Athens. Their bloodstained hands, which send Turkish and Greek soldiers in Korea. Their bloodstained hands which prepare a new war. They even issued an official statement and talked about the Greek-Turkish friendship. We all understand this friendship.

To hit together the fighters of the Turkish and Greek people, who are struggling for Independence, peace and freedom. To grind in the same american mincer children of the Greek and the Turkish people. To compel the people of Turkey and Greece to bend the head and worship their bosses and the bosses of their bosses.

But the people of Turkey and Greece give a totally different meaning to the Greek-Turkish friendship. For them, the friendship means a common struggle for the freedom of their homeland. For national independence, for the happiness, in order to be able to taste side by side in the fraternal table of friendship, the bread and the olives of their own country.

The Turkish and the Greek people want to send to hell the foreign conquerors. The experts for the torture and the experts for the economic disaster.

In the hearts of the Turkish and Greek people there are the same feelings. Love for their homelands, love for the Soviet Union, for the People's Republics, the Great People's republic of China. (For) every independent or semi-independent people who struggles for national independence. Love for the Korean people. Love for the decent Americans. This is the meaning of the friendship between the Turkish and the Greek people.

My friends Greeks,

We must fight together, hand by hand for the national independence of our countries, for democracy against every expression of fascism, against the imperialists. Thus, our friendship will becoming day by day more powerful.
As a representative of my people, I can say to you that the Turkish people love the Greek people and feel admiration for their heroic achievements. I can tell you, that the Turkish fighters were learning, even in the prison, the news from the liberation struggles of your people and of your people's army. I can tell you that they were hearing about the incidents in Greece with tears in their eyes. The Turkish people was by the side of the Greek people in these tragic and heroic days and will be in the future always by their side.

https://communismgr.blogspot.gr/2016/07 ... -1952.html
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Re: Greece and the KKE

Post by blindpig » Sat Jan 20, 2018 1:01 pm

Friday, January 19, 2018
100 YEARS KKE – A century of struggles and sacrifices
https://communismgr.blogspot.com/2018/0 ... s-and.html

The text below is a translated version of the first chapter of the Declaration of the CC of the Communist Party of Greece for the Party's 100th anniversary. The Declaration was published and circulated with the weekend edition of "Rizospastis" on 13-14th January 2018.

This year the KKE completes a century of struggles and sacrifices, remaining the only actually new Party of the Greek society, because it is the only one that struggles for the abolition of the exploitation of man by man. It was founded in a period when the flame of the October Socialist Revolution in 1917 gave a boost to the revolutionary labor movement internationally as well as in Greece.
With the foundation of the KKE, the working class acquired for the first time her own party in our country. From the first day of its foundation, the KKE firmly struggles for the only progressive future for humanity, so that the working class and the popular strata will be saved from the torments of exploitation, oppression, poverty, unemployment, state violence and repression, wars.
It fights for the abolition of any mode of exploitation and repression, for a new organisation of society, with social ownership in the means of production, in the land, through the scientific central planning of economy, with the active participation of the workers in the organisation and direction of social production.
It fights for socialism-communism, the only society which can ensure job for everyone, according to each one's specialization, with actual free time and enjoying high quality, free of charge social services of Health and Education, Sports, cultural activity, housing, vacation and high living standards in general, responsible participation to the organs of management and control in the whole climax of the workers' state.
The KKE hold high the flag of socialism-communism, even when the counterrevolutionary overthrow in the Soviet Union and the other countries of socialist construction was at her peak. The KKE had collectively conquered the needed class criterion and finally clashed with anticommunism, the domestic and internationalism opportunism which was projecting “perestroika”, the vehicle of counterrevolution, as progress and socialist renewal.
The KKE came into collision with the bourgeois and opportunist apologists of the capitalist system who were supporting that the “end of history”, the end of class struggle, had come. It highlighted that nobody can stop the course of revolutionary class struggle in historical evolution towards socialism-communism.

It highlighted that socialism, the immature level of communism remains necessary, realistic, hopeful. It illuminated that socialism's necessity doesn't depend on each time's correlation of class struggle in a country or internationally, a factor which is undoubtedly crucial about when a socialist revolution can be erupted, under what conditions it can win in a country or group of countries.
KKE projected that the working class, which creates the social product, is the only social force that can organise economy and society, having as a motive the satisfaction of the more and more increasing social needs. It is the class which can correctly estimate and ensure the interests of the popular strata of the city and rural areas.
The KKE, strongly believing in the right and the capability of the working class to know and change the world, fights from the very first time of its foundation so that it (working class) will be prepared through the daily class struggles as a leading force of socialist construction. It asserts and fights for the development of the scientific knowledge of the workers, for their physical and intellectual abilities, for their cultural development and cultivation of their esthetic criterion. It underlines and contributes so that the working class can utilize and use the book, new technologies, the internet.
The KKE highlighted and highlights the decay of capitalism, the relative stagnation and crisis in relation to the progress that can be made if capitalist ownership and the motive of profit are abolished.

Above all, with its positions and activity, the KKE illuminated that the only way that leads to social liberation is the way of socialist revolution, of the planned and organised revolt and attack of the working class and her social allies for the overthrow of the capitalist class' power.
The KKE is fighting on a daily basis for the development of the objective factor (labor movement, alliance with popular strata of the middle class), so that it will be ready, in circumstances of capitalist power's shaking, to correspond to its duty as a driving force of the victorious socialist revolution. It gives the fight daily in order to justify its pioneering role as a visionary, but also as an organiser of the struggle for the ultimate revolutionary overthrow of capitalist barbarity, for the construction of socialism-communism.
Translation: In Defense of Communism.

* The Declaration of the Central Committee for the 100 years of the KKE will be presented during a political and cultural event at the Municipal Theatre of Piraeus, on Monday 23 January 2018, at 7.00 pm.
Αναρτήθηκε από In Defense of Communism
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Re: Greece and the KKE

Post by blindpig » Sat Feb 10, 2018 4:40 pm

On the 75th anniversary of victorious outcome of the Battle of Stalingrad

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On February 2 75 years will have passed since the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, with the complete victory of the forces of the Red Army and the crushing of the Nazi armies, something that constituted the beginning of the radical change of tide in the war in favour of the USSR and more generally laid the foundations for the Anti-fascist Victory of the Peoples.

Today the EU, as well as other bourgeois ideological mechanisms seek to rewrite history, to diminish or even eliminate the role of the USSR, of the Soviet people, the Red Army and the communist movement that made countless sacrifices in the struggle to defeat fascism, which emerges from the bowels of the capitalist system. Even now, however, the battle of Stalingrad, its victorious outcome are unpalatable for imperialism and its ideological mechanisms, as the study of it highlights the advantages of the socialist mode of production, the leading role of the popular masses, with the working class as the leading force, the role of the communist party as the revolutionary workers’ vanguard.

Stalingrad is one of the best examples of the superiority of socialism when compared to capitalism, that is to mobilize all the social forces for a vital battle as this historical victory not only showed the military merits of the Red Army but also the unity, common will and organizational capacity of a socialist country.

We call on the workers as well as the youth of the countries of Europe to turn their backs on the ideological-political propaganda of anti-communism and anti-sovietism; to learn from and to be inspired by the titanic endurance and strength of the victors of the battle of Stalingrad and to swim against the current of pessimism, which is created by the existing negative correlation of forces, against the barbarity of capitalism, against the wars, crises, exploitation, poverty, unemployment and class oppression.

https://inter.kke.gr/en/articles/On-the ... talingrad/

For reasons inexplicable to me IDC has apparently installed a copy-block, at least it won't let me & I typically only see that from high rollers and a few like 'Stalker Zone'. not very socialist or revolutionary, imo.
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Re: Greece and the KKE

Post by blindpig » Tue Mar 06, 2018 7:19 pm

KKE: Mass popular response to the plans and wars of the imperialists

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On Tuesday 27th of February, the Attica Organization of the KKE held a large rally in Syntagma Sq., outside the Greek Parliament, with Dimitris Koutsoumpas, GS of the CC of the KKE, as its main speaker. He presented the positions of the party on the developments in the Balkans, Middle East, Greco-Turkish relations and the Cyprus Issue, after the escalation of the aggressiveness of Turkey.

Thousands of people of every age, members and friends, of the KKE and KNE, workers and employees, self-employed, unemployed, pensioners, young people, were present at the rally and march to the US embassy. This was a strong response to the complacency being cultivated by the SYRIZA-ANEL government regarding the situation, at the same time when this government has undertaken the role of being the flag-bearer for the NATO and EU plans in the Balkans, Aegean etc.

Together with them, in the front line, young conscripts who conveyed the message from the army camps: “The soldiers are the children of the people, they have no business outside the borders!”. One of them greeted the rally, while the Committee of the KKE for the armed forces and security forces had a special presence at the rally, with the presence of several soldiers and sailors, as well as retired officers.

Then, the GS of the CC of the KKE stepped up to the podium, addressing a call against imperialist war, the plans of NATO and the EU and Greece’s involvement in them. Dimitris Koutsoumpas refereed to the developments in Syria, denounced both the recent military intervention of Turkey, as well as Greece’s involvement in the war, through the provision of military infrastructure to the USA in Greece. He also referred to the provocativeness of Turkey in the Aegean and Cyprus, the dangerous developments in the Balkans and the NATO encirclement of Russia. He explained the positions of the KKE on the issue of FYROM, as well as the question of the stance of communists towards war as a a whole.

Amongst other things, he stressed in his speech that “The people’s struggle needs to be strengthened so that there is no Greek participation in the dangerous plans of the Americans and NATO. [...] Our people have nothing to separate them from the other peoples of the Balkans, from the neighbouring people of Turkey. For this reason, no one must be caught in the traps of nationalism, which poisons the peoples and hides the fact that the workers in all countries have the same opponent, their exploiters, the bourgeois and their rotten system.”

He mentioned that “The KKE is the only party that highlights the character of the war as the butcher of the peoples for the interests of the monopolies. [...] However, today the political line for the profitability and competitiveness of the monopolies intensifies the exploitation of the workers, which increases in conditions of crisis, where the imperialist police with a gun at the people’s heads prevails, so war is the continuation of politics by violent military means, with aim at conquering markets, spheres of influence, control of natural resources.”

The GS of the CC of the KKE stressed that “The communists, as always during their 100-year history, will play the leading role in the struggle for the defense of the territorial integrity, our sovereign rights, in order to crush any foreign invader who dares attack Greece. At the same time, however, we show no trust in any bourgeois government that carries out a war. No tolerance for the ruling class that participates in the war for the promotion of its own economic interests, making our people shed their blood,. We will seek to put them in the dustbin of history with our struggle, overthrow them, for the complete victory of the people, so that the result and prize of this struggle will be workers’, people’s power [...] Come and struggle all together against any aim to change the borders, the international treaties, which leads to the blood shedding of the peoples. Against nationalism, which wants to conceal the fact that the workers in Greece, in Turkey and in other countries today have the same enemy: the monopolies, capitalism, their governments and their imperialist alliances. We should reject the underhand calls concerning alleged “national unity”, i.e. the subjugation of the working class, the people to the plans of capital and the USA-NATO.”

At the end of his speech, he called on the people to join forces with the KKE because it is the only political party in Greek society that can lead the regroupment of the labour movement, the promotion of the alliance of the anti-capitalist/anti-monopoly forces. To lead the struggle against imperialist war, the interventions of NATO and the EU. So that the people can truly come to power and the country can be disentangled from the imperialist unions, to build the new socialist-communist society without unemployment, crises and wars.

There followed a march to the US embassy with slogans against the plans of the USA-NATO, EU, against imperialism and nationalism, as well as against the participation of Greece in the imperialist plans and organizations.

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https://inter.kke.gr/en/articles/KKE-Ma ... erialists/
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Re: Greece and the KKE

Post by blindpig » Thu Mar 29, 2018 11:57 am

Greek police fired tear gas to demonstrators during Tsipras' speech in Thessaloniki

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How did the government of SYRIZA respond to the thousands of workers, farmers, trade unions' members organized with PAME, students and other people who demonstrated against its antipeople-antiworkers policies in Thessaloniki? By ordering riot police to fire tear gas to protesters who wanted to express their disagreement with the "development fiestas" of Mr.Tsipras and his government!

More specifically, when the trade union's rally arrived at the area of the venue where the Prime Minister would deliver a speech, met strong police forces who had blocked the street.

A delegation of the trade unionists and farmers asked from the head officer of the police forces a permission to pass the blockade in order to meet with the PM and deliver a resolution. The demand of the trade unionists and farmers was not only rejected but furthermore, the riot police forces fired tear gas against the demonstrators.



The protesters remained in their positions shouting slogans, such as "Enough with illussions, either with the capital or with the workers", "With bats and riot police you hit the workers, while you held the bosses" and others.

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Photo Source: 902.gr

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Photo Source: 902.gr

The demonstrators denounced that repression and police violence goes hand by hand with the policy which crushes the working people and that the organized class-oriented labor movement will continue the daily struggle everywhere, in the streets, in every workplace, in every neighborhood.

The rally took place on the occasion of SYRIZA-ANEL government's conference, held in Thessaloniki, on "regional development" and "production reconstruction" in the Central Macedonia region.

IN DEFENSE OF COMMUNISM ©

http://www.idcommunism.com/2018/03/gree ... oniki.html

Heh, IDC is no longer blocking 'copy'. It's funny that blocking started after I objected to the KKE line on imperialism on twitter but I don't think it works like that. In any case I don't think communists should restrict access to useful content.
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Re: Greece and the KKE

Post by blindpig » Mon Apr 16, 2018 5:59 pm

Greece: Protesters try to topple 'capitalist' Truman statue amid clashes



Clashes erupted between police and Greek communist party (KKE) supporters in central Athens on Monday, during a rally condemning air strikes on Syria by the US, Britain and France.

Protesters tried to topple a statue of former US president Harry Truman by tying ropes around it and dragging it down. Riot police responded by firing tear gas in an effort to disperse the crowd.

"Today we wanted to unseat the symbol of Capitalism, which is Truman", said member of the communist-affiliated union PAME Giorgos Perros.

Video ID: 20180416 019
Video on Demand: http://www.ruptly.tv
Contact: cd@ruptly.tv

*******************
IDC back to acting like a capitalist again, thus not much on Greece here of late. Too bad.
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Re: Greece and the KKE

Post by blindpig » Thu Apr 19, 2018 4:23 pm

POLICE REPRESSION AGAINST UNIVERSITY AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT DEMONSTRATION

On Monday April 16th riot police forces launched an attack against demonstrating university and high school students and workers using tear gas and stun grenades in the center of Athens near the Truman statue which students went to tear down in a symbolic move of condemnation of American imperialism that together with Great Britain and France carried out the recent intervention in Syria.



POLICE REPRESSION AGAINST UNIVERSITY AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT DEMONSTRATION

In a statement from the Press Bureau of the CC of the KKE it reads:
The KKE condemns the attack of the riot police forces using tear gas and stun grenades against a demonstration that was organized by trade unions, university and high school student associations against the imperialist attack on Syria. The result were two arrests and two injured protestors.

The SYRIZA-ANEL government has tremendous responsibility for this event. Not only is it participating actively in the war against Syria, by providing numerous concessions, even receiving the congratulations of the American ambassador for this, but also seeks to flaunt its dedication to American–NATO plans by brutally attacking protestors and with a host of police forces, protecting a statue – a fossil of blood-soaked American imperialism.

The people and the youth draw their own conclusions on the role of the Greek government. They are not frightened and they will add their own more dynamic ‘presence” to the mobilizations in the upcoming days.

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https://inter.kke.gr/en/articles/POLICE ... NSTRATION/

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Somehow KKE fell off of my fav bar so I had to search, and what do I see?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist ... –Leninist)
The Communist Party of Greece (Marxist–Leninist) (Greek: Κομμουνιστικό Κόμμα Ελλάδας (μαρξιστικό-λενινιστικό), ΚΚΕ (μ-λ), Kommounistiko Komma Elladas (marxistiko-leninistiko), KKE (m-l)), is a Maoist communist political party in Greece.
bolding added

That's Wikki for ya, who knows who put that up. But given their incorrect take on imperialism one could say the shoe fits.

If only they were Chinese Maoists and not American Maoists.
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Re: Greece and the KKE

Post by blindpig » Wed May 23, 2018 11:23 am

We struggle for a Party with strong and consolidated organizations in the industrial sectors

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An activity where the General Secretary of the CC of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoumpas spoke, was organized by the Organization of Industrial Workers of the Attica Region Party Organization on Saturday, May 19th, in the Headquarters of the CC in Perissos, themed: "Industrial proletariat: vanguard in the struggle of the working class for the abolition of exploitation, for socialism-communism".

The representatives of the Communist and Worker's Parties that were in Athens to take part in the works for the preparation of the 20th International Meeting of the Communist and Worker's Parties that has been decided to be hosted by the KKE participated in the activity. D, Koutsoumpas welcomed the international delegations from the podium.

The activity began with a theatrical act during which the poem of the great Greek communist poet Yannis Ritsos "KKE. Three red letters, humble signature of our people to the avenues of the future" was read. After the speech of D. Koutsoumpas a concert with worker's songs followed.

We publish below the translation of the speech of Dimitris Koutsoumpas:





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Friends,

Comrades,



All over Greece, in cities, villages, neighborhoods, workplaces and sectors, we are celebrating and honoring the 100 years marking the founding of the heroic and esteemed Communist Party of Greece.

It is the culmination of the great celebration of a century of struggles and sacrifices that is closing, for the new century that is beginning.

Within the month of May, with the symbolic number “100”, we are organizing 100 events in 100 cities all over the country.

Among them today’s event organized by the Sectoral Organization of Industrial Workers of the KKE holds a special place.

We are especially delighted because with us today are representatives of Communist and Workers’ Parties who are here for the meeting of the Working Group of the International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties.

We welcome them.

We are especially pleased because the next – the 20th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties – will take place in Athens in November, in honor of the 100th year anniversary of the Communist Party of Greece.



Friends,

Comrades,



100 years ago, in 1918, with the founding of the KKE, the working class for the first time in our country acquired its own Party.

The KKE since its foundation has consistently striven to highlight the historical role of the working class, its potential as a revolutionary class, to acquire and exercise its power.

It highlighted that the working class, which creates the social product, is the only social force that can organize the economy and society with satisfaction of the constantly increasing social needs as its criterion.

It is the class that can correctly calculate and safeguard the interests of the urban and rural popular strata.

The KKE, firmly believing in the right and potential of the working class to understand and change the world, struggled from the first moment of its foundation so that this can be prepared through the daily class struggles as a leading force of socialist construction.

Marx and Engels emphasized:

“Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. The other classes decay and finally disappear in the face of modern industry; the proletariat is its special and essential product.”

Lenin stressed the burden that the proletariat carries in capitalist society, its objective vanguard role, even under conditions where it is the minority in the general population.

“The strength of the proletariat in any capitalist country is far greater than the proportion it represents of the total population. That is because the proletariat economically dominates the centre and nerve of the entire economic system of capitalism, and also because the proletariat expresses economically and politically the real interests of the overwhelming majority of the working people under capitalism.”

Engels underlined the special burden of the industrial proletariat due to its position in production, its concentration in workplaces and in cities and its organizational potential:

“The first proletarians were connected with manufacture, were engendered by it […] We shall find the same order again among the industrial workers, and shall see how the factory-hands, eldest children of the industrial revolution, have from the beginning to the present day formed the nucleus of the Labor Movement, and how the others have joined this movement just in proportion as their handicraft has been invaded by the progress of machinery.”



In contemporary capitalist societies, as in Greece, there is a tendency to reduce the percentage of the factory proletariat in the working class as a whole.

This does not mean that the factory proletariat ceases to constitute the core of the working class.

That is why a truly revolutionary party must be founded upon the factory proletariat.

This development is inherent to capitalist industrial development, which brings with it:

- On the one hand, the immense possibility for live work to be replaced, that is, to greatly reduce general work time and at the same time to increase social prosperity,

- On the other, this development expands the need for the reproduction of labor power – greater and more specialized training, education, aesthetics, athletic activity, preventive healthcare and rehabilitation, welfare, and many more that under capitalism, are demands that are satisfied to a certain extent within the vast commercialization of organized capitalist services.

In this way the working class is also expanded; that is, workers as salaried employees by capital in health, welfare, education, tourism, athletics, culture, and more.



The factory proletariat, as the most vanguard section of the working class, especially its conscious section, the communists, must struggle in a way that will promote the unity of the working class.

In other words, it is a matter for the factory proletariat to struggle for education, health, welfare, athletics, culture, as well as for work and living conditions for the sections of the working class where in these areas of course, there often exist petty bourgeois conceptions and lifestyles, an issue which constitutes an additional obstacle.

In honor of the 100 year anniversary of our party we will make every effort so that our party forges even broader, even stronger bonds with the working class, with our people.

We will wage even more decisively the battle for our Party to build a strong, fortified and organized force in the sectors of industrial production and other sectors of strategic importance.

In order to strengthen the backbone of the revolutionary political vanguard.

Because, as the title of tonight’s event states “The industrial proletariat is the vanguard in the struggle of the working class for the abolition of exploitation, for socialism – communism.”



Friends

Comrades



Overall, the political developments in Greece are certainly interdependent with international developments; and, above all, with the developments in the region that Greece belongs to, as well as with the developments that concern the EU, the correlation of the bourgeois currents and its organizations.

The reform of the bourgeois political system presents chronic difficulties, to which are added governmental corruption of the reformed social-democratic section, that is, SYRIZA.

Similar developments are encountered in other countries of the EU and not only.

The general trend of reactionism is expressed by all the bourgeois currents and the more contemporary opportunistic ones.

One element of this reactionism is:

On the one hand, the presence of extreme nationalist and fascist political forces, and on the other, the emergence of government alliances between neoliberal and social-democratic parties that essentially manage common policies which reduce and strip away the rights of the working class and popular strata.

All of this reflects the deep reactionary balance of forces, the climate of disappointment, accompanied by the retreat of the trade union movement.

We don’t close our eyes to the fact that for the time being, there is an especially negative correlation of forces worldwide.

This makes the capitalist states more aggressive towards the working class.

The working popular masses more passive, despite the sharpening of competition, the expansion of war hotspots and episodes.

An almost passive acceptance of anti-worker regulations can be observed in many countries.

Under these conditions, the ideological – political fortification of communists, the members of the KKE and the KNE becomes even more demanding.

The characteristics of the communist vanguard become even more demanding overall.

We are working in this direction, we are regrouping and strengthening our forces.

With the certainty and the revolutionary optimism that we will manage it!

Comrades,

As the strategic convergence of the bourgeois parties increases, especially the SYRIZA-ANEL government with ND and PASOK (MOVEMENT OF CHANGE), so sharpen the verbal disputes, the hysterics, the intensifying of disagreements over single issues and details.

They are trying to create a climate of artificial opposition, in order to cover up the fact that they all have a common position within the walls of the predatory alliance of the EU and of NATO.

To these, the bourgeois parties offer up credentials as to who is the most capable manager of policies in support of large capital and its imperialist alliances.

As long as the various bourgeois parties, under whatever guise - right, center or left – flash their credentials to the SEV (Greek Business Groups), to monopoly groups, they will also start up an electoral “chicken-fight” amongst themselves.

The policy of the current government of SYRIZA - which is now in the 4th year of its governance - as we have seen being implemented, is equally dangerous for popular interests as with that of previous governments.

The KKE calls for a struggle, a social alliance that will lead to a total overthrow of the anti-people policy, the rotten system, the class that now holds power.

This policy does not change with specific changes of some persons in power.

Nor by alternations of bourgeois parties or some co-operation between bourgeois parties, since they all follow the same direction:

The capitalist one-way street, the European Union slaughterhouse of people’s rights, the NATO killer of the peoples.

Especially dangerous are the illusions that SYRIZA seeks to sow.

We are referring to the mockery of "a clean exit from the crisis", "abolition of the memorandums", "a return to regularity"!

We say this because it knows very well that the basic features of the so-called "memorandum policy", at the expense of wages, pensions, social benefits, etc., are rooted in the EU's every decision and guideline which are the aims and goals of domestic big capital and concern each member-state of the EU.

They have incorporated hundreds of anti-labor laws in the memorandums that they all voted for, which will remain in full force following the end of the program.

Our call to "Strengthen the KKE everywhere because power and hope is of the people," "Break the shackles of the EU, the monopolies, NATO" is a realistic and victorious response for the people themselves, the movement.

This call can reach every factory, the thousands of industrial workers, but also those who are now unemployed and their families.

Because the way out for the people lies in the regroupment of the workers' movement, the strengthening of the social alliance, joining together with the KKE for overthrow.

It is in the struggle to abolish all the anti-people laws of the memorandums.

In recovering the enormous economic losses that the working class suffered during the crisis.

It is in the overthrow, in the way-out with development for the benefit of the working class, the popular strata.

We direct this call with confidence in workers in industry.

To the unemployed and their families.

To young people who are still in schools or in training, or are under apprenticeship and practical training in various sectors.

But also to pensioners, many of whom are militant, experienced fighters who can decisively help the party at this stage.

We can also take a big step forward in our day-to-day work inside workplaces and outside, with our fellow workers who have the same problems as us, to take a decisive step in the strengthening of the KKE.



This will be what is really different, what will bring hope.

Given certain conditions, today we can put a stop to, put the brakes on, put obstacles in the way of the anti-people politics.

We can even fight to enforce relief measures for popular families, without losing sight of the fact that whatever relief, whatever gain, without radical change in the balance of forces, without overthrows at the level of power and ownership, will be transient and vulnerable to the impunity of the bourgeoisie and its political staff.

That is why the daily struggle must be directed mainly towards radical changes for the benefit of the people.

They tell us that we put off everything for socialism.

We answer to them:

That is the only real, final solution.

In any case, we put forward specific proposals every day within the trade unions and in the Parliament, in the European Parliament.



The bill proposed by our parliamentary group on collective bargaining and the reinstatement of the minimum wage to 751 euros, the restoration of the 13th and 14th salaries, for the 13th and 14th pensions, perhaps this bill is about socialism?

Are our proposals for relieving hungry households, to abolish auctioning off people’s houses about socialism or are they proposals for today?

We submit proposals like these:

Like re-employing workers who were fired so that permanent and stable work exists, not to divvy up workers between sub-contracted, indefinite and contractual work.

But, we say to workers that since you are waging a struggle to win even small breaths of relief, you have to take it to the end.

The working class, the people should take the struggle to the end, not abandon it in the middle.

Working men and women must realize what the real cause is, what kind of society we need to build.

Why should the worker be in power and direct production?

Why should there be a central scientific design for each branch of industry separately, and for all the sectors of the economy?



Otherwise, whatever we gain today, be it a slightly higher salary, a better working relationship, some others will come along and take it all back.

Hasn’t the labor movement won rights over the past 100-150 years?

How did they manage to take it back from us in only a few short years, in the 8 years of the crisis?

It happened and it will happen again if we do not take our struggle to its end, if we do not have such a prospect, and if we do not decide that this is the path to take.



Friends,

Comrades,



We are taking into account the key developments in the various branches of industry.

Developments that have occurred on the terrain of the capitalist economic crisis over the past decade.

And today they continue upon the terrain of the weak and insecure capitalist development we have passed through.

Developments that have a serious impact first and foremost on the lives of workers in industry and their families.

We say this because, in fact, not only must we face up to these developments, but we also need to be able to interpret them.

This is because the workers themselves in industry need to know what is to blame for why things have turned upside down; why is it that they can’t find work in the sector they have worked in for years?; why haven’t they been paid for months?; why are they paid less than what their fathers were paid years ago, even under conditions of capitalist development?

They can slowly realize that the capitalist system itself is responsible for unemployment, the system that lives and breathes for profit, the social system that treats the physical, muscular and intellectual power of the worker as a commodity.

It wants the worker to be a commodity, an increasingly cheap labor force, working for hunger wages, without rights.

That is why workers are being forced out of industry with consolidated rights in order to put others in their place:

Young workers, under 25, who are paid in crumbs.

Unemployed subsidized workers, where the subsidy ends up being hot cash in the employer's pocket.

Young apprentices doing their practical training without pay.

But even when the monopolies, the giant enterprises under capitalism make investments

And when motivated by profitability and competitiveness, they create the conditions for productivity to rise ...

A phase in which to some extent, for some sectors, we find ourselves in today ...,

Even so, they still do not reduce general working time but reduce the number of workers they use or dramatically change working relationships using contractors, with eight-month contracts with flexible working relationships as a rule….

The incentive for profitability and the competitiveness of capital leads to growth, to the over-accumulation of capital which can no longer be invested with a satisfactory rate of profit. So, in this way growth brings crisis.

With the same motive, it struggles to return to growth rates.

This discussion must take place so that very working man and woman understands the nature of the capitalist crisis and the character of capitalist development.



Friends,

Comrades,



A lot of experience has been gathered throughout the years.

The demands of the big capital will not disappear, as the Government says, with the advent of the capitalist recovery and expiration of the memorandum.

Unfortunately, all the above will continue to exist as long as the EU and capitalist growth continue to exist, in other words for as long as the ideals of the current government and those of the other parties, old and new, are still upheld.

In fact, the representatives of the European Commission have now and again declared that fiscal discipline is a must and will continue in Greece.

It is in the name of that discipline that the anti-labour and anti-popular armoury will keep being reinforced.

Industrial workers, having experienced the dramatic consequences of the capitalist crisis, can understand better that anyone the meaning of the words of Mr. Tsipras, who having greeted the news of this year's primary surplus said that "his government had brought to term her mission with seriousness"...

Some of you may remember the fact that the same words were used by SYRIZA.

Both SYRIZA and New Democracy actually address these declarations to the industrialists.

They achieve these as they promised the industrialists since both politicians have paved the way for the latter with anti-labour measures.

The so-called “fair growth” and “restructuring of the production” of SYRIZA are nothing more but the capitalist road to development that brings profits for monopolies, while for the working class it brings unemployment and exploitation.

SYRIZA’s invitation to “all the productive forces" to share and rally for the common vision of capitalist growth and reconstruction naturally includes business groups!

That is why beside the goal of development, SYRIZA puts the "social cohesion", that is to say, the "Class collaboration".

Their most recent motto to try and subjugate the movement is the necessity for a "national line"

Well, a national line in the sense of the Greek Federation of Industries, the Opposition, the treacherous trade-union leaders and the opportunists will not come to be, not in a million years!

Indeed, the only national line is what is in the interest and for the benefit of the workers, the salaried employees and the poor popular classes.

What are the actual requirements for a "productive reconstruction" of the Greek Economy and for "targeted investments" that are so much at the heart of SYRIZA's policy?

The first and foremost requirement is never to rebuild what has been demolished.

In other words, to preserve at all costs the abolition of the eight hour working day, part-time work without fixed working hours and decent wages.

The so-called “productive reconstruction” requires workers to abandon their claims for better salaries, stable employment and recognized rights.

The objective of New Democracy, SYRIZA and their supporters is to persuade the workers that their interests are identical to those of the industrialists.

New Democracy and SYRIZA want the workers to make their employers' increased profits aim of their lives and in the end submit to the employer's demands.

The proposals of New Democracy and SYRIZA are implicitly telling the capitalists that their profit is guaranteed and that their power and supremacy are not at risk.

In addition to the government, this kind of "social cohesion" is the hard-to-achieve objective of the government and employer-led trade-unionists in the GGCL, ADEDY, the Confederation of Public Servants and other secondary trade-union bodies, where they hold the majority.

This is their true objective in hindering the organization and participation of the workers in the struggle, putting obstacles against the right of strike, in trying to secure the workers’ agreement through blackmail and dilemmas.

This is their objective in attacking the class movement and using crude anti-communist arguments.

This is their type of struggle, compromise and integration.

One of the most obvious examples of this policy is the call for a National General Strike on May 30.

They are trying to put the trade-union movement under the control of the employers and of the EU and thus lead to its overall degeneration and submission.

They will fail!

The communists, the class labour movement, PAME and other anti-capitalist, anti-monopoly social alliance groups that are part of the movement will throw a spanner in their works!

To this end, we have been tirelessly visiting all kinds of work places and factories, day in, day out, from dusk till dawn, with the class trade-unions, with PAME, with the radical groups of the self-employed, of the women and children of labour families.

All of you attending this event have firsthand knowledge of the doings of government and employer-led trade unionism at the work place.

Each of you can bring up countless examples of that activity.

It is this knowledge that we have to communicate the workers and their families on a daily basis.

The only way to put a spanner in their works is organisation at grassroots level and the struggle not against the memorandum in general, which is currently of no importance, but against the monopolies and capitalism.

The struggle to gather up our forces, to create the requirements for the complete reversal of the current situation so that the people take the keys of the economy in their hands and plan economic growth according to their needs.

If this does not occur, all struggles are bound to lose their momentum and be manipulated by governments betraying the workers' rights, each of these governments will continue the anti-popular work of the previous governments, just as it happens nowadays.

For all these reasons we insist that none of these governments, be it SYRIZA or New Democracy-led, be it one party or coalition governments in cooperation with willing parties, such as the Change Movement, or smaller, shooting-star parties, pro EU and pro capitalist growth, will not give back to the people pre-crisis rights and conquests.

Friends,



The workers do not have to choose between pro-EU and pro-capitalist growth parties, such as New Democracy, SYRIZA, the Movement For Change and other "ramparts" mounted in the past and now, the "River", the quaint political figure of Mr.Leventis and other available and useful system minions: the Golden Dawn party, the Nazis and Fascists, the far-right, the racists and all other kinds of rot.

All those are on the bosses' side.

Genuine, popular concerns are all on the other side. Equally on the other side are the working class movement and social alliance between the workers, pour farmers and the self-employed.

Only the Communist Party is standing by the side of all the above. It is the only party consistently and stably fighting, the party that reflects the only realistic, people-friendly way of growth with the people in power.

The Communist Party’s comprehensive political proposal enables our party to express, genuine and clear, popular discontent vis-à-vis all those that have been hurting the people for years.



We are not holding things back. This has always been our policy.

In fact, we do divulge and, what more, blazon our entire strategy that is based on the position that a Greece whose people enjoy social wellbeing and peace, a Greece in which the people own the wealth, organize production and society, in general, by establishing the required institutions of power cannot be part of the EU and of the warmongering of NATO.

Thus, our struggle to upturn the latter reflects the struggle that ought to be undertaken by all the peoples in their countries in order to change the existing situation, bring down the capitalist system and build a better, superior society: the socialist – communist society.

It is high time, therefore, that the peoples intervened to prevent alternative plans that will grant a lifeline to EU and to NATO for them to pursue their all-offensive rush against the working class and the people.

Let the peoples stay away from rivalries that may revive the spectre of past and present, local and regional wars in Europe or in its wider area of interest.

For centuries, for years on end, for decades the peoples, including the Greek people, have conquered and progressed entirely through their struggle and through the “NOs”, small and big, that they said.

Let all of us ponder what the world will look tomorrow if we cease to fight.

Expecting a miracle.

Listening and believing all those who say that ours is a small country so we are left with no alternative but to be permanently tethered on the cart of US monopolies, of the EU and of capitalist growth!

We have said it many times; we shall repeat it today and will not fail to reiterate it in future.

There are no small and big peoples.

Instead, there are peoples bent on struggle, on fighting for their rights, notwithstanding the obstacles raised by the powers of capitalist darkness.

Here in Greece, what we think, discuss in our meetings, shout in our demonstrations and in the paths of struggle, our concerns regarding the preparation of a bright future for the working class in our country...

They are identical to the concerns and discussions of the workers in all the capitalist countries of the world.

Thus, if the people pave the way, in their own countries, fulfil their duty there and continue to strike, to crack the bourgeois power in one or more countries, in a group of countries, a continent and, why not, shortly in the whole world, this will kindle the revolutionary fire lighting up the future of mankind.

Friends,

Comrades,

We are stretching our hand out to all those who have known us for years.

They know that we have never failed to fight for the interests of our people.

They know that we love both our country and our people.

That we stand hand in hand with the oppressed and suffering.

That we lead the battles and daily struggle for survival.

That we are staunch internationalists, whose solidarity and friendship embraces all the peoples of the world.



The Communist Party of Greece will take the lead, hand in hand with the working class and its vanguard, the industrial proletariat and the people at the head of developments, for socialism.

Nowadays, we can at last put our extensive experience to good use.

The strengthening of the Communist Party, first and foremost in the work place, in the factories and major strategic infrastructures, will enable us to strongly oppose any anti-popular government, as well as EU and monopoly politics.

Despite the unfavourable balance of power, we shall continue our struggle, persuaded about the power of the working class.

Nowadays, the Communist Party of Greece declares that the people of Greece and their children can live better.

Greece is in possession of accumulated means of production, monopolies, and major enterprises in a number of fields. Furthermore, our country possesses experienced scientists and work force, natural resources and minerals.

In other words, Greece has all the potential and requirements needed for production and growth based on contemporary popular needs. This potential is squandered away by dominating monopolies and capitalism.

Socialism can solve the problem of unemployment; ensure that every man and woman has a stable job and genuine, time-adjusted rights.

Because, the main objective of production is not profit. The aim of socialism is planned production to ensure the general satisfaction of social needs.

Thus, centralized planning shall ensure that the growth potential of our country, including human achievements in the fields of science, technology and culture that ensure an elevated quality of life, intellectual development and civilization, serves the people and their needs.

Job uncertainty will disappear and free time will increase so that, in addition to all else, the workers will get the opportunity to participate in all kinds of executive authorities, from the grassroots to the top, beginning from assemblies at the work place. Thus, the workers will directly participate in the nomination of work councils, in the audit and revocation of representatives and in the direct control of administrative bodies. This is genuine power to the working class that has nothing to do with bourgeois, in name only, democracies.

The construction, however, of a new, communist society is a long-term process.

It has its own milestones to achieve and a number of contradictions to eradicate, many of which will be inherited from the capitalist system.

These include:

- The differentiation between skilled and unskilled labour,

- The contradiction between manual and intellectual work,

- The contradiction between administrative and executive work,

- Frequently also underlying gender differences in the work place.

- The situation of the workforce in rural areas compared to the workforce in the cities, and

- Contradictions related to the distribution of the domestic product.

The shaping of a new production process in this new - socialist - society is a procedure that begins with the conquest of power by the working class, wich is not yet definitively irreversible.

The first steps include the planning of a new production process that will replace the general abolition of capitalist relations and of the relation between capital and salaried work.

The means of production in the fields of industry, energy and water supply, telecommunications, construction, repairs, mass transport, wholesale and retail trade, as well as import and export trade and in the tourism and catering industry will be socialized.

Farming and capitalist-managed farms will be socialized.

The sectors of education, health and welfare, culture, sports and of the media shall be organized in order to serve society.

The work force will no longer be a commodity.

The leasing of workers by those who continue to own individual production means in sectors that are not subject to compulsory socialization, including farming, tourism, catering and a number of ancillary services, will not be allowed.

Centralized planning integrates the work force, the means of production, raw and all other industrial materials and resources, into an overall plan covering the fields of production and of social and administrative services.

This plan includes the establishment of state-owned production units, where agricultural products will be farmed and processed for use as raw materials or for consumer use.

A single, public body and its regional and sectoral branches shall be responsible for centralized planning in each branch of the economy.

The planning will be based on a set of objectives and criteria touching the sectors of energy, transportation, processing and the mining industry, communications and IT, land-planning and construction. The main aim shall be to protect these sectors and put them to good use in order to ensure the peoples' well-being, the establishment of citizen-friendly cities, the coverage of housing needs, the construction of infrastructure works, and the promotion industrial production and of the social services.

Similarly, farming will be supported by the domestic industrial production of fertilizers, pesticides, animal fodder, reproductive and propagating material, etc, as well as agricultural machinery and irrigation infrastructures.

The establishment of a socialist pharmaceutical industry that will produce medicinal products, medical supplies and biomedical technology shall maximize independence and ensure the free of charge distribution of medicinal products and medical supplies to cover the peoples' needs.

This alternative political proposal tabled by the Communist Party of Greece is in itself an answer to the question:

Indeed, the Communist Party of Greece insists that the solution and the future lie in overturning capitalism rather than attempting to find temporary ways to manage it.



All the political parties that have, to date, fallen into the trap of the dangerous theory of the possible have swiftly been lost in revision, resignation and integration and have been swallowed by opportunism, counter-revolution and capitalism to become the puppets of one or the other imperialist bloc.

That is why the Communist Party of Greece is staunchly insisting on the actuality and necessity of socialism.

Socialism is contemporary and newer than ever!

It is thus that the Communist Party of Greece, despite its century-old history, remains the youngest party of the Greek society.

Our stability, reliability and deeply-rooted belief in universal ideals is being currently recognized and appreciated every day.

More and more workers, men and women, employees, self-employed, professionals, scientists, students, pupils, women and working class families are coming to terms with it and choose to join us.

To all of the above we stretch out our hand comradely.

A big, communist embrace is waiting for them.

An embrace that only the working class Party knows how to give.

To lead the struggle, to learn from history and to lay out the route for tomorrow.

Be strong all of you!

LONG LIVE MARXISM LENINISM AND PROLETARIAN INTERNATIONALISM

LONG LIVE THE CENTENARY OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF GREECE

22.05.2018

https://inter.kke.gr/en/articles/We-str ... l-sectors/

Good speech
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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